On the Internet you are never [#%**?] safe

President of the Australian Labor Party (Queensland) and state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union is reported to be taking a certain unlovely name and shame website to court alleging defamation and supposedly asking for $600,000 in damages.

It seems that the website might have been used by guests to further some very bitter union infighting.

Apart from an article in The Courier Mail nothing much had surfaced about this little dog fight until Wikileaks published this week.
Now the entire world has a fair idea what the complaint is about, courtesy of documents with lots of [#%**?] and considerable legal correspondence from Carne Reidy Herd (a generous political donor to Queensland Labor in the past) which developed earlier in the year.

When are prominent people going to learn that softly, softly is a much better approach when requesting uncomfortable comments be removed from websites if that is their legitimate desire?

G20 in London, March 2009: words in pictures

Montage by Stephen Hird

Who knew Helen Liu? The Mata Hari furphy

Who knew Helen Liu?
Everyone it seems.
Who really cares?
Only Tony Abbott and Co.

Abbott was in full spate on Meet the Press last Sunday:
"I think there's absolutely no doubt that John Howard in his first term would have sacked a minister who had been as inept as this. Absolutely no doubt but look, I think there are also questions for Kevin Rudd. What's the extent of his relationship with Helen Liu? And if he does have the kind of extensive relationship with Ms Liu that it seems he might, given the reports in today's paper, perhaps he should be fronting up to this Commission of Inquiry which is currently looking in to the whole question of Joel Fitzgibbon and these disclosures."

Now if Tones the Terrible really wants to worry about something coming out of China he can try this widespread 'spying' on for size.
If what appears to be a group of teens high on big brother's alcopops could hack an Aussie government website last week, it's odds on that Australia was caught by this particular covert international digital information gathering operation which entered over a thousand computers in 103 countries and close to 30% of these were considered "high-value diplomatic, political, economic and military targets".

Is Kevin Rudd's head really that big or are his staffers just losing the plot?

Twitter is a strange beast which often seems to induce poor impulse control in politicians and their staff.

Here is a case in point:

KevinRuddPMMore photos of the PM with Defense Sec Robert Gates http://cli.gs/TpQTMa #KevinPM Teamabout 22 hours ago from TweetDeck

Now I have no idea why the Prime Minister's team thought that it was worth sending out links to photographs taken of his meetings with President Obama and Robert Gates.

In America every single person who shakes hands with the cousin of a cousin of the wife of a serving admiral right up to the those who meet with a former or sitting president are happy snapped by an in-house photographer.
U.S. officials have a mania for giving away these souvenir snaps, the originals of which are then discarded in the bottom desk draw of a junior officer, lowly aide or secretary of the local agricultural society.

For heaven's sake - even I've had the full red carpet treatment in years past!

If Mr. Rudd and his Twitter team want their tweets to count for something - how about an insightful, pertinent and informative bite about his Washington visit.

Note to Kevin's staffers: the colour of guest soaps in White House bathrooms doesn't count as valid information, nor how great the coffee was as you waited for the boss to stop smiling for the cameras.

Rudd's 11th Community Cabinet meeting coming up in WA

The Rudd Government will be holding its 11th Community Cabinet meeting at Ballajura Community College, Illawarra Crescent, Ballajura, Western Australia on Wednesday 22 April 2009.

If you want to have a 10 minute chin wag with a minister or listen to Rudders address the forum you need to get your moniker on the list before 4pm on April Fool's Day.

Mate, if you are going to this meeting perhaps you might ask the PM a question for me:
When is the federal government going to hold one of these cabinet meetings in the NSW Northern Rivers?

Australian Government website blacklist is so passe

I almost (but not quite) feel sorry for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy - matters just go from bad to worse whenever their grand plan to censor the Australian Internet rates a mention.

The latest Wikileaks expose of the March 2009 Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist of banned websites revealed a URL for a certain dot com gambling site.

It appears that in September last year the Commonwealth of Kentucky seized this online gambling site and its domain name, along with 140 others, under an interim order from the Franklin County Circuit Court.

However, amended order and later ruling in another court has meant that this site is not only still active but, along with its fellow allegedly illegal gambling sites, is listed on the Internet for all to see along with the various legal arguments surrounding their seizure.
Just Google "illegal gambling" and up it they come.

So the purpose of this werry secret ACMA blacklist is?

From my perspective this is a rather interesting question because the blacklist is supposedly composed entirely of URLs which have been banned by direction of ACMA/Censorship Board

On its website ACMA displays the approved Internet service provider and online content and mobile provider codes of practice.
The Authority clearly states that failure to comply with such codes may amount to an offence under the Broadcasting Services Act.

However, one researcher informs me that URLs on the blacklist can be successfully accessed using common search engines via a number of Australian Internet service providers (ISPs).
This includes blacklisted content which is hosted in Australia.

So if some ISPs currently ignore legislation, regulations and the risk of significant penalties for non-compliance and/or publishing illegal content; why would Senator Conroy believe that all ISPs will obey any new legislation imposing a larger blacklist?

Julian Rocks flaunts its underwater colours

Julian rocks is situated within the Cape Byron Marine park in northern NSW, on the east coast of Australia.
It is home to over 1000 marine species including wobbegongs, rays, turtles, fish, nudibranchs and many more. It is an aggregation site for the endangered Grey Nurse Sharks, Carcharias taurus, who visit in winter. Leopard sharks visit Julian Rocks over summer.
This is where warm and cool waters meet, hence the enormous biodiversity. A minority of species are endemic to this area. Most are found over a wide area of the Asia-Pacific region.

Find out more about this wonderful underwater playground at www.julianrocks.net